In the service of his master’s degree at the Eastman School, Fennell completed a thesis, Orchestral Development of the Kettledrum from Purcell through Beethoven. As he would later recount, while studying repertoire for his thesis, “I became a looker as well as a listener. Research to support the thesis meant that I had to explore all printed scores before Purcell and then patiently to peruse every score in the complete works of Purcell, Bach, Handel, Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven. Through this survey of a composer’s use of the kettledrums I had the chance to observe much beyond that area as well.”